O.O See that? That is the visual representation of me opening my inbox and seeing the reviews and the subsequent brain aneurysm. Dude. Now I'm kinda scared to post this. On a happier note: Happy New Year!

14. On His Knees

Backwards time skip - Cybertron

The call came over the frequencies right as he was about to shove the 'con's arm through his own optics. Sideswipe didn't even understand it at first. But then something about the wording, "It's… it's a Decepticon, sir. You might want to come over here" and something sparked in Sideswipe's processor. He dropped the arm, the groaning 'con completely forgotten, and turned to the north where the flashes of plasma fire still lit up the sky.

He knew that the main contingent of Megatron's forces were starting to fall back but there were still clashes as the advancing Autobots met pockets of resistance. It wouldn't be long before they managed to clear them, though, and by that point it had become a matter of mopping up the mess.

He didn't recognize the mech who'd made the call, but he did recognize the short, terse, "On my way."

Prowl.

Sideswipe wasn't quite sure why, but something about that felt bad. He ignited the recently installed jet-pack between his shoulders and kicked off, taking to the skies. He didn't go high, staying well below the Flier's ranges—much as he loved taking down the Decepticon Seekers, now was not the time. Even from that altitude he could see enough of the Tagon Heights.

The bustling manufacturing center had been reduced to smoldering ruins, most of the famous towers gone. The ones that hadn't caught fire had been blasted apart as one faction or the other took cover within only to have the enemy bring in the serious firepower. He couldn't see the western quadrant, where Megatron had sent his heavy bombers when it became apparent that he would not be able to take it. Better to destroy it than let the Autobot use it to make supplies, or so Sideswipe guessed. To the east, most of the structures still stood but the Decepticons were retreating in that direction. It, too, would end up as rubble. Prowl had been to the north so that was where Sideswipe flew.

It was underneath what used to be an overpass. A large crater, riddled with bodies, had been blown into the ground. The road itself, once a graceful arch, was lying in pieces, the jagged remains piercing the sky. A small group of Autobots had gathered around the far side of the crater and before Sideswipe landed, he could see the tension in their frames.

All Sideswipe saw at first was a body; just another mangled carcass among so many others. But then something cut through the strange buzzing in his processor and he saw the yellow.

The mech was almost unrecognizable. Half of his armor was slagged and Sideswipe could see swaths where it had melted into the inner circuitry. One leg was gone, the other crushed. The arms were intact, if a little singed, but with the gaping hole in his chest—it must have just missed the spark chamber—the mech would be unable to use them. The head, however… the mech's face had been ripped off, the inner gears exposed, processor hanging out. The optics, now totally bare, shifted and Sideswipe realized that the mech was still online.

It was the fins, he later decided. If it hadn't been for those stupid, oversized sensor arrays, he never would have realized… never recognized…

Sunny.

He felt something inside him twist and draw tight.

Sunny wasn't making a sound and Sideswipe could see that his brother's head was connected only by a column of wiring. His vocalizer was missing. The Autobots standing above—Primus, it hurt to say it—Sunny, were talking in low murmurs, gesturing down at the remains and then to the north.

They're waiting for Prowl.

He couldn't look away, though seeing Sunny like that hurt worse than anything ever had. He was still online. His optics were moving, just a small twitch, and Sideswipe knew that if he'd been able to, Sunstreaker would have been sneering.

Sunny. It's Sunny.

He should say something. Do something. Anything. But he found he couldn't move. Couldn't look away. Couldn't even say his brother's name or reach out to him. He just stood there, staring.

"Hey, Sides! Glad you could make it!"

Sideswipe glanced up to find the gathered 'bots looking at him. One of them—Brawn, he recognized—was waving him over. Sideswipe looked back down.

Sunny was staring at him. It lasted only a nano-klik. Just one brief moment and then those optics flickered, dimmed, and went out all together and Sideswipe felt part of his universe die.

"Sunny?" he said.

"...really need to wait for Prowl? I mean, it's not like anyone's going to care, right?"

"…could just say he up and offlined while we were waiting."

"…slagger. He deserves worse."

"…not gonna wait! Stubborn pit-spawn probably wouldn't just up and die on his own and I ain't letting him leave."

That snapped Sideswipe out of his funk and he looked to the group on the far side of the crater. They'd bunched in closer. Their weapons were drawn and he could see the hostility rippling in the air above them.

They weren't calling Prowl to pick up a prisoner. They were calling Prowl to get an execution order. They were going to kill Sunstreaker.

"No…"

Brawn brought up his pulse rifle and took aim.

Sideswipe moved, leaping into the crater and scrambling over to the other side, skirting his unmoving brother. Brawn glanced up, his optics a little surprised, and then he grinned.

"Hey, 'Sides, you wanna get in on this? There's plenty—"

Sideswipe's fist plowed into the mech's face. Something snapped and caved in. The 'bot went flying, hitting the ground and flipping aft over end before landing in a crumpled heap against one of the overpass support columns. Before he'd stopped bouncing Sideswipe brought every weapon system he had online and trained his cannon and pulse rifle on the 'bots to either side.

"Touch him I will kill all of you," he said.

Silence for a nano-klik. And then everything went crazy.

"What the slag is wrong with you?"

"Are you glitched?!"

His sensors went haywire as his fellow Autobot's targeted him with their own weapons.

"Back off," Sideswipe hissed, sinking into a low crouch.

"What the slag are you doing?" Cliffjumper said, shifting into Sideswipe's view. "You some kind of Decepticon sympathizer, Sideswipe?"

Sideswipe moved his right arm, lighting up Cliffjumper's face with the glare of his rifle.

"You want to say that again?" he said.

"Answer the fragging question! 'Cause I don't see one reason why you would take down one of your own for that pile of garbage down there unless—"

That did it. Vorns of listening to the rec. room horror stories—his only way to get news about Sunstreaker—and Sideswipe snapped. Weapons forgotten, he reached over, grabbing the mech's rifle with one hand and plowed into him, knocking them both down. He landed on the smaller mech and started to hit him. But the little slagger lifted an arm and squeezed off a shot. The beam went wide, singing the epidural layer of his helm and Sideswipe grunted in pain. So he shifted the pylons in his arm, bringing the armor down to form reinforcing struts, and crushed the offending weapon and the hand holding it.

Cliffjumper screamed.

By that point the startled onlookers had sprung forward and Sideswipe felt hands clawing at his arms and back, trying to tear him off the flailing 'bot.

"Prowl, we've got a situation here!" someone said.

The closest mech to Sideswipe got an elbow to the face for his trouble and staggered away, cursing. Cliffjumper used the distraction to reach up and try to gouge out Sideswipe's optics, but the mech was a good head shorter and only managed to scrape at his mouth.

"No go, midget," Sideswipe said and slammed the 'bot's head into the ground. Several times. Until he stopped moving.

It was right about then that something big and red filled his vision and suddenly a terrific force hit him. It knocked his stabilizers off for a few nano-kliks and when he regained his senses, it was to find his face mashed against the ground with something heavy pinning him there.

"Let go!" he shouted. He tried to twist his hips to get some leverage, but the force holding him refused to budge and a moment later, Sideswipe felt a cold, crackling thing slide over one shoulder and then the other. And then Sideswipe lost all sensation in his body.

"No! No! Get these off! Get off!"

Ironhide, because that's who he realized was holding him, hoisted him upright, settling him on his knees.

Prowl stood before him, facing him but watching the others fuss over the oozing Cliffjumper. Slowly, face immobile, Prowl turned his head to look at Sideswipe. He didn't say anything for a moment. Just stood there, staring down while Sideswipe felt his energon boil.

"Autobot Sideswipe," Prowl said and his vocalizer was a complete monotone. Prowl was pissed. And Sideswipe didn't care.

"Prowl," he said.

"You are charged with a major infraction of Autobot Conduct Code 27.2.01 and 42.8.033."

Sideswipe wasn't listening. His body wouldn't respond to his commands thanks to the energon binders. All he got was a confusing mess of electronic jumble and scrambled relays. It felt like tingling from the neck down. But he could still move his head and had turned to watch as more mechs—must have come with Prowl—clustered around Sunny.

"Autobot Sideswipe—"

"Get away from him!" Sideswipe snarled and the new mechs looked up, one of them with a scanner frozen over Sunny's head.

Nobody said anything and Prowl turned to look. The mech who'd scanned Sunstreaker looked startled and then stood up and stepped back.

"Is he damaged?" Sideswipe heard Prowl ask.

From behind, Ironhide's low grumbling, "I don't think so. Not the way you're thinking."

He knew that they were talking about him. Some unseen gesture and then Prowl was moving away, now towards Sunny. Sideswipe felt his energon pumps falter as the Second in Command of the entire Autobot Army came to a stop on the lip of the crater. He said something to one of the new mechs who bent down and ran a sweep over Sunny. That mech stood back up and even though Prowl was turned away, Sideswipe still saw the officer shake his head.

No.

Prowl said something else and the unknown mech lifted his hand only it was changing shape and he was pointing a solar cannon at Sunny and someone was screaming and Sideswipe was trying to stand and he didn't care about the binders. All Sideswipe could see was that cannon and the way Sunny's optics had flashed so long ago and the sneer on his face when he'd said, "I'm better than that!"

Ironhide was grabbing at him. He heard something fizzle and pop. Suddenly he could feel his left leg and he was standing up. Ironhide was holding him, trying to pull him back down and pin him and Sideswipe thrashed, managing to land a hit on the larger mech's helm with his elbow. Ironhide just grunted.

"Prowl!" someone shouted.

Not Sunny! Not Sunny!

He couldn't even form words. His vocalizer didn't seem to be working and there was some awful, static-filled roaring.

Sunny storming off, footsteps clanking down the alley as his back faded into shadows.

"Then this is one thing I do alone!"

Primus, Sunny. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have let you leave. I won't let you leave. Not again.

And with a final pull, the pink energy crackling around him, Sideswipe broke free and the binders over his shoulders loosened. Ironhide was reaching around, fumbling for something just above Sideswipe's chest and Sideswipe snarled and pulled out his rifle and twisted around to—

Prowl grabbed his arm, bent it back and up, and Ironhide's foot connected with Sideswipe's knees. He dropped back to the ground, twisting and turning and shouting. But two mechs held him now and he felt a hand reaching underneath the back of his helm and close over his major motor relay.

"No!"

And everything went slack. Sideswipe slumped against the bodies holding him.

"No, no, no, no, no! Please!" Sideswipe said.

Both Ironhide and Prowl were running internal fans.

"Please, please don't hurt him."

"Call Ratchet down here. I want him to run a full diagnostic and viral scan," Prowl said and Sideswipe heard Ironhide mutter to himself. The Second in Command was standing back up. He gave Sideswipe a last glance and Sideswipe thought he saw that immobile mask slip for a nano-klik. Then he was walking back towards Sunny, only his left hand had shifted into a weapon.

"Please, Prowl! Please! Don't hurt him!" Sideswipe said.

"Quiet down," Ironhide said. Sideswipe knew he was going for the power relays next, shut him down until Ratchet could get there. Shut him down while they murdered Sunstreaker.

"I'll do anything!"

Large hands had manually pulled back the port covers.

"Please Prowl!"

He felt a data connector slide into his port. A surge of energy washed over his processor, overwriting commands and initiating shutdown.

"Don't hurt my brother!"

Ironhide accessed the proper command codes and—

'backwards time-skip' - Did that help at all? I'm trying to figure out a way to make the time line jumps a little more coherent. Again, reviews = HOSHIT.

Elita One: Go Sunny!

pax-athena: Thank you. It was written as a more waff-ish chapter.

Sunstreaker: Thanks. You make me blush.

Trapped in Reality: Thank you. As for the Autobots... well, it's a start. Though I think it might have freaked some of them out more than anything.

blood shifter: Sunstreaker does have guts. Everyone (and by that I mean the Autobots) thinks of Sideswipe = suicidal maneuvers, often overlooking Sunny, I think.

Bluebird Soaring: Yeah, they do. Thanks for the review!

Thing With No Talent: Thank you. Glad you liked it. I wrote it as a kind of nice, fuzzy break from the "OH GOD" of the story.

cmdrtekk: Yeah. I figured that for a long time, things would be incredibly tense between Sunstreaker (and, by default, Sideswipe too) and the others. It can't be easy running into the guy who tore you apart in the mess hall and having to not rip him a new one. It's not something you forget. Glad you thought I did well with that.

Next up: Exhausted